Shrine Maidens of Barsoom Books in Order

Shrine Maidens of Barsoom is Foxworthy's love letter to old planetary adventure. The first book follows a man who chases clues hidden in classic Barsoom stories and actually crosses over to the Red Planet. Once there, the goal gets simple in the best possible way: find water, make a weapon, learn the language, and stay alive.

It is pulp on purpose.

That old-fashioned adventure energy is a big part of the charm, but the series is not just imitation. Foxworthy uses the Barsoom frame to tell a more personal survival story, one that mixes wonder with practical problems and then slowly grows into questions of belonging. The planet is strange, dangerous, and exciting, but it also becomes home in a way the hero did not expect.

The second book, The Start of Eden, gives the series a stronger emotional turn. After becoming a local hero and building a life on Barsoom, the narrator realizes that paradise is not the same thing as freedom from responsibility. He wants to go back to Earth, not because he has stopped loving this world, but because he has a son he cannot leave behind.

If you like old-school science fantasy, desert adventure, and portal stories with a beating heart underneath the spectacle, this is an easy recommendation. It captures the feeling of discovering another planet and then asking what it would really cost to stay there.